Food resupply and Chuck Wagon Meal

[Doug Parker]

My son and his crew got their first choice of itinerary. Interestingly the written itinerary shows 2 resupplies (d4 & d8) but only one is indicated on the map. (Itinerary #13)

They also have a Chuckwagon dinner/breakfast (d4/5) and a second Chuckwagon dinner (d10) with no breakfast. Just curious what the Chuck Wagon meal consists of, and how that affects food resupply.

[John Myers]

It looks like your first resupply is at Ponil on day 4 (day 3 of your trek).

It doesn't show on the map because the pickup is at one of your camps.

When you resupply, they will not give you a dinner or breakfast for the meals where you have a chuckwagon meal. The chuckwagon dinner we had was beef stew and dessert was dutch oven cobbler. They will probably do something similar. You will need to donate a couple of boys to help with the preparation of the food. I have no idea what the breakfast will be.

I'm leaving Friday morning!

John
609-S #16

[Glenn Smith]

Doug,

Depending on whether there are any fire restrictions, you will be served beef stew and dutch oven cobbler. Normally two youht members of the crew will be asked to participate. If there are fire restrictions, then it will most likely be canned peaches and pound cake out of a package for dessert because dutch oven use will be prohibited. Breakfast is pancakes and sausage which is prepared by the adults in the crew who use the kitchen near the pavilion used for the chuckwagon meals.

As mentioned earlier, you will not receive trail meals for the chuckwagon meals. You will need to take your bowl, spork or whatever, and water bottle to the chuckwagon meals. They will have sanitation sinks available to wash the bowls and sporks.

Enjoy!

Glenn

[Doug Parker]

Thanks for the info, folks. So it sounds like:

1) the crew will need to take a bowl for this meal (they are looking at other options for the remainder of the trek.) Would a 12-16 oz butter plastic butter dish or similar be good?

2) the crew will essentially be carrying 1 less day of food (2 dinners and 1 breakfast) over the course of the trek.

Any additional infor I can pass on to the scouts about this?

[John Myers]

They should be able to use the same bowl they use for all their other dinners.

[Peter Griffith]

Can you eat a Chuckwagon dinner and breakfast out of a freezer bag or a cup? We will have cups but not bowls.

[Mark Rash]

Peter:

The answer I have seen on here before is to take a 1 Gallon zip lock back for the Chuck Wagon meals. It seems the staff is uneasy trying to scoop food into the smaller 1 qt freezer bags.

I'm personally taking a Fozzils snap-together plate for the Chuckwagon meals. Many in our crew are taking the 2qt Zip Lock Bowls to use.

Another recommendation was to take the Sea-to-Summit X Plate (or bowl).

[Glenn Smith]

Bags and/or mugs will work but you may need to watch the heat of the stew in the bags and eating pancakes and sausage links out of a bag or mug could get interesting. I have helped cook the chuckwagon breakfast twice. It's a good meal. Great change of pace. Especially on treks where it is in the middle and not at the end of the trek.

Recommendation – always eat your heaviest breakfast and lunch meals first after a resupply regardless of the day # on the bag.

[John Myers]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm curious as to why they won't have bowls.
My traditional Lexan bowl weighs 2.2 ounces and it's nearly unbreakable, so it doesn't seem like a weight issue.

Can they bring their own bowl if they want to?

[Peter Griffith]

We're doing freezer bag cooking for all meals and you eat out of the bag so there is no need for a bowl other than the chuckwagon dinner. As it turns out we don't have a chuckwagon dinner or breakfast on itinerary 27.

[Larry M]

0.8 oz bowl here:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=63369&skip_to_post=543846#543846

Enjoy!

[Tony Ronco]

Last summer, our troop sent two crews to Philmont.

Both used the Freezer Bag Method through out the treks including the chuck wagon meals.

For the chuck wagon meals at Beaubien and Abreu the freezer bags worked fine for all. Use a gallon sized one for these meals instead of the normal quart size. (The gallon size leave plenty of room for the serves to fill it)

For Abreu it was advantage to use two – with the extra one doing double duty at a "soft" plate/place-mat.

So, Freezer bags are a viable option.

Here is a more complete thread:
http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=59418&disable_pagination=1

Enjoy!

[Steven McDowell]

I was thinking of using the 4 cup ziploc microwave bowls also. Figured they would be great as a bowl/cup that each Scout could carry and we could avoid the turkey bags for most of the meals.

Tried it out with a Mountain House meal after first splitting the contents and it worked great. Also cooked a cup of normal rice and it worked out (did 2/3s of the water after putting in the rice then 10 minutes later the last 1/3)

If anyone can suggest a different meal that would be a better test I would appreciate it.

For stoves we are bringing either one or two MSR Reactors for a crew of 10. If we bring just one bringing a Snow Peak and another can of fuel as backup.

On cleanup when possible, finishing with a "soup" of the dregs of the meal.

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